Religion in Tanzania


is the largest religion in Tanzania according to the most recent estimates. There are also substantial Muslim and Animist minorities.
Current statistics on the relative sizes of various religions in Tanzania are limited because religious questions have been eliminated from government census reports since 1967. A 2010 survey from the Pew Research Center found that 60% of the population are Christian, 36% are Muslim, 2% practice traditional religions and 1% are unaffiliated.

Statistics

For many years estimates have been repeated that about a third of the population each follows Islam, Christianity and traditional religions.
Religion-related statistics for Tanzania have been regarded as notoriously biased and unreliable.
About 98 percent of the population in Zanzibar is Muslim. There are also active communities of other religious groups, primarily on the mainland, such as Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and Bahá'ís.

Abrahamic

Christianity

The Christian population is largely composed of Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants. Among the latter, the large number of Lutherans and Moravians point to the German past of the country while the number of Anglicans point to the British history of Tanganyika. All of them have had some influence in varying degrees from the Walokole movement, which has also been fertile ground for the spread of charismatic and Pentecostal groups.

Islam

On the mainland, Muslim communities are concentrated in coastal areas, with some large Muslim majorities also in inland urban areas especially and along the former caravan routes. The majority of the country's Muslim population is Sunni of Shafi school of jurisprudence; the remainder consists of several Shia subgroups, mostly of Asian descent and the Ahmadiyya Islamic movement, and a smaller subset of Ibadism and nondenominational Muslim practitioners.

Bahá'í Faith

Judaism

Indian religions

Buddhism

Hinduism

Sikhism

Freedom of religion

The government of Tanzania and the semiautonomous government of Zanzibar both recognize religious freedom as a principle and make efforts to protect it. The government of Zanzibar appoints Muslim religious officials in Zanzibar. The main body of law in Tanzania and Zanzibar is secular, but Muslims have the option to use religious courts for family-related cases. Individual cases of religiously motivated violence have occurred against both Christians and Muslims, as well as those accused of witchcraft.

Notable places of worship